Her Mask (Shikamaru x Oc)

Chapter Forty-Three

Shingami silently walked through the streets to get to the restaurant that team ten was supposed to meet at. It was their usual place.

Shingami was glad to finally be doing something other than paperwork and torture, but she’d take what she could get.

She felt embarrassed not only for calling Ibiki ‘dad’ but embarrassed by the fact that he didn’t seem to mind it.

She was still angry with Anko but made a mental note to buy Ibiki dinner before she left. 

When she opened the door she glanced around the tables to see if she could spot her team and the same moment she noticed them, Shikamaru spotted her waving her over.

“Sorry I’m late, I had some things that I needed to get done.” She sat down next to Ino who hugged her randomly.

“Don’t worry about it, you’re here now.” Asuma said while putting a plate of food in front of her. 

She didn’t hesitate to remove her mask and place it beside her on the chair on the edge away from Ino so she didn’t need to look at it.

“Anything new going on?”

Shikamaru sighed. “Work. A lot of work.”

Shingami smiled gently. “It’ll pay off. Before you know it you’ll be a Jonin.”

He rubbed his temple. “That’ll give me more work.”

Shignami laughed lightly, making the boy’s face flush.

“You’ll do fine if I can do it you can.” Ino then got Shingami’s attention.

”Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Everyone including Shingami was confused.

“Tell you what?”

“Your birthday is a week from today! My dad told me!”

Shingami’s face blanked. “Oh, that.”

Choji and Shikamaru looked at each other then at the girl, Asuma had his arms crossed with a smile.

“Is that so?”

The girl didn’t answer them.

Ino took her silence as a chance to start planning.

“We can have a party! Oh! You can finally wear that dress too!”

Shingami took a bite of her food before answering. “I have work Ino. I don’t have time for things like that.”

Ino’s shoulders slumped. “But have time to play shogi with Shikamaru, huh?”

“Barely. Every time I do, my work piles up. And don’t you have training with Lady Tsunade anyway?”

Ino wanted to make a comeback that would make her consider the party, but the look those magenta eyes were giving her made her stuff her mouth with her food just to hold her tongue. 

Shikamaru’s mind wandered over what he could possibly get her for her birthday without Ino making a big deal out of it. His eyes went down to the necklace that she wore around her neck. He imagined that the silver pennant would look nicer if it were on a silver chain. Even though he thought it looked nice on the black rope.

Choji followed the Nara’s gaze to Shingami’s chest and choked on his barbecued pork. 

Asuma and the girl’s attention snapped over to him while Shikamaru looked at him lazily.

When he finally stopped coughing he stayed really quiet and was watching Shikamaru hoping he had made a mistake and he was just looking at her eyes or something. But Shikamaru didn’t know that was what Choji thought was going on. So he didn’t say anything. 

Asuma cleared his throat and looked at Shingami. “How was the interrogation this morning?”

“It was alright, took a while but we got it done.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “But a few minutes before I got here, Anko decided she was gonna fuck around and ruined five hour’s worth of reports. I almost had to cancel.” The girl said running her fingers through her hair.

“What about the reports? Do you need to redo them?” Asuma said feeling bad that all her hard work was completely destroyed. Shingami has turned in papers splattered in blood, ripped in half but mended with tape, coated in a layer of dirt. He knew ruined meant there was no way anyone could read it, and if Anko had something to do with it, he knew it was bad.

“No, Ibiki said he’d do them for me since he was the only other person in the room with me.” She shook her head.

The girl then turned to Choji rubbing the back of her neck. “Um, by any chance do you know how to make sautéed enokitake? It’s Ibiki’s favorite but I don’t know how to make it.”

Choji crossed his arms for a minute thinking before nodding seriously counting the ingredients on his fingers. “Enoki mushrooms, sesame oil, garlic, and soy sauce. I have everything at home if you want we can go there and I can teach you how to cook it.”

Shingami nodded. “Thank you Choji. I know how to cook a few things but not that many and I don’t have time to self teach myself.”

“If you don’t have to leave right after this, we can do it today if you’d like.”

Shingami blinked a few times thinking quickly if she had to do anything today but smiled and nodded when she realized there wasn’t. “Okay, thank you for helping me.”